


After the Escape

by Magistra



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-14 12:46:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/837023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magistra/pseuds/Magistra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Susan's friend Clara warns her of an impending disaster and the Doctor thinks it's a joke, someone's bound to be left behind in the mad rush to get away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Escape

**Author's Note:**

> This was written very quickly for a friend. I should have put research into it, I'm sure there are some glaring impossibilities and plot holes here. Maybe I'll come back and do that eventually.

The doors of the TARDIS closed faster than Susan had ever seen them close. She sank to the floor panting as her grandfather threw himself on the controls, willing the TARDIS to move as fast as possible. Susan could only stare in horror at the doors, shocked by what she had seen out there and worrying that the doors would break under the onslaught of flying metal orbs that had suddenly swarmed and attacked them barely a month after they had set foot in London, December 2008.

Just as she was about to start screaming that the door would break, she felt the TARDIS jerk under her. She slid across the floor, hitting the stand of the console quite hard.  Blinking back tears, she grabbed onto it and held tight, her eyes shutting hard as she tried to ignore the shrieking of the machine.

After a few minutes of desperation and feeling like her head would be torn apart Susan opened her eyes again. The room was silent now; the TARDIS had landed. She slid out from under the console and stood up shakily. “Grandfather?” she called out. “Are you alright?”

Two gnarled hands appeared over the far edge of the console. The Doctor dragged himself upright, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. He leaned his weight over the console, panting, “Yes, yes, my girl. Quite alright.”

Susan walked over to him, and took his arm. She guided him into one of the rooms off the side to a chair.  She pulled one up next to his and sat down, wrapping her arms around the Doctor’s neck and pressing her face against his shoulder. She felt him slide an arm around her back, patting consolingly as she began to cry.

“There there,” he murmured. “You’re safe now. We’re far away from those things, whatever they were.” They sat in silence for a few minutes before he ventured to say, “Did your friend not make it onboard, then?”

Susan lifted her tearstained face and shook her head. “She was with me right up to the doors, but she let go of my hand and… I suppose they… they got her,” she said. She began to cry harder, speaking between sobs, “She didn’t deserve it, grandfather… She deserved to come with us… I don’t know how she knew, but she knew the things were coming…”

The Doctor pulled her to his chest, sighing. “I know, my girl. Losing a friend to tragedy is a terrible feeling, especially for the young,” he said. He paused then, wracked with guilt. If only he had believed Susan when she and her friend had run up to him in the street near where they had concealed the TARDIS shouting that Susan’s friend seen strange, round, metal creatures flying towards them, that these creatures seemed to be hunting them, that they needed to get away from them in the TARDIS. He had dismissed it as a joke played by the mischievous little monkeys, and had been very cross at Susan for telling her friend about the TARDIS and even leading her to it. If he had listened to the girls instead of scolding Susan and telling her friend that it was all lies that she was a stupid child to believe, the friend might have made it in on time. As it was, only Susan had made it. He was surprised that Susan wasn’t angry at him; knowing the moods of teenagers, he expected that would come later. He ran his fingers through his granddaughter’s hair, and asked her, “What was her name again, darling?”

“Clara,” said Susan, her voice muffled by the Doctor’s jacket.

He nodded, not quite catching her response. “Yes, of course,” he said. He held Susan tighter. “And we won’t forget her, will we?”

“Never,” sobbed Susan. “Never.”

They sat there for a while, surrounded by the faint hum of the TARDIS. Once again, just like every time they landed somewhere they hoped would be safe, tragedies had ripped the chance of settling comfortably away from them. In that second, they didn’t know where they were. All they knew was they were still together, which was much better than the alternative.

It was a good long while before the Doctor had the time to check where and when they had arrived: The Universe, The Local Group, The Milky Way Galaxy, The Orion Arm, The Solar System, The Inner Planets, Earth, Europe, England, London, 76 Totter’s Lane, May 1963.


End file.
